So how about some vinyl rips for the Tired of Hump Day Jukebox of RBig BeBop mix

Let's delve into the back catalog of the underrated Canadian rawk band The Payola$

I can't say I was ever a big fan, but this track has always got me singing along.

It's from fairly early in their career, when they were still slugging it out in Vancouver pubs alongside D.O.A, Thor, and the Subhumans. The Payolas managed to get signed to Miles Copeland's I.R.S label though, wanted to be rock stars, and left the indie scene behind...

This lyrics, delivered in a punky OI! style, decry the tightly controlled radio formats that also kept them from really reaching their goals, at least stateside. It was featured on the I.R.S Greatest Hits Vols. 2 & 3 dbl LP in 1981, and that's were this rip was sourced.

Unfortunately, later efforts from the band were less rambunctious, less satisfying to me, and were characterized by frontman Paul Hyde’s moody vocals, as the group toned down their approach to a more AOR sound, and moved over to mothership label A&M.

They eventually had a few hits in Canada, where those friendly local "content laws" no doubt helped them.

They weren't so lucky stateside, where their name was so taboo, most corporate rock stations wouldn't even utter it. It's rumored that 60's payola scandal poster boy Dick Clark refused to let the Payolas appear on American Bandstand unless they changed their name.

The quintet soldiered on and recorded 1981’s "In a Place Like This" (produced by guitarist Bob Rock), which was a critical success, but a commercial flop in the US.

It included a remake of “Jukebox” — and yet another remake of an early single called “China Boys” — as well as more proletarian laments like the title track and “Whiskey Boy”. In 1983, they won several Canadian Juno awards for the album ‘No Stranger To Danger’ which was produced by Mick Ronson. The LP featured the track “Eyes Of a Stranger” one of their best known songs, having also appeared in the US teen film Valley Girl featuring Nicolas Cage.

If anyone wants to relive that cut, lemme know and it may show up in a week or so...

The Payloas eventually split in 1986 and Hyde and guitarist Bob Rock released an album on Capitol Records entitled “Under the Volcano” as Rock & Hyde, they toured, and had three more minor Canadian hit singles before they ended up going their separate ways.

Hyde went solo, while Winnipeg born Guitarist Bob Rock actually did achieve that multi-platinum success. It wasn't with his own tunes though, Rock went on to produce Metallica’s best selling albums and several other big records by name brand bands including David Lee Roth, Mötley Crüe, Aerosmith, The Cranberries, American Hi-Fi, Bryan Adams, Tal Bachman, Bon Jovi, and The Cult. Rock also briefly played bass with Metallica for a period while they looked for a replacement for Jason Newsted.

I understand, that after a long hiatus, in July 2007, the Payolas reunited & released a seven-song EP, ‘Langford Part One’.

Go Figger...

Speaking of fairly big success stories, here's another track from that I.R.S Greatest Hits Vol 2 & 3 compilation I mentioned above.This is a group y'all have definitely heard of, and whose stadium reunion tour was the fastest selling show of summer 2007. They are on the road again this year with a guy named Elvis Costello opening...

Here's something the trio did back in 1978, before Andy Summers even had taken up the guitar slot.

I gotta say this obscure fast paced ditty featuring Henry Padovani on 6 string is also one of my faves by the group...their later material oft seems bloated & wimpy in comparison...or maybe that's just Sting's personality.

Here's another fave from that late 70's era, it was pretty big hit, and reminds me of that polished Nick Lowe / Rockpile kinda Bay City Rollers sound that was happening then.

In a contrast to the predominant disco dominating the charts, this was a shiny pop rock tune that was fun drive around with the top down...

The singer was the offspring with some good ol' boy Rockabilly lineage, but he never managed to hit the Casey Casem Top 40 again...

Oh Well, not many folks do...

At least he left us this one for the ages... even if it's mostly forgotten!

In 1991, some friends of mine released their vinyl debut, right as vinyl fell fully out of favor at retail.

While their album had all the crazed trademarks of the grunge era, including psychotic Jesus Lizard-esque guitar runs, and mutant vocalizings somewhere from the J Mascis meets Butthole Surfers school of singing, their limelight was restricted mostly to tiny club shows south of market, and some local college radio airplay.

they were offered an opening slot for Nirvana in Chicago on the Nevermind tour, but they were gonna have to play so early, and travel so many miles ,their barebones budget couldn't handle the strain and it really wasn't worth it.

We all know now that Courtney Love got flown to that Chicago gig by Geffen who was courting her, and she skanked into the dressing room, hooked up with Kurt...and eeeehhhhh!!

Eventually they both get so hooked on smack, that Kurt dies a couple times, and so does she a few times, but somehow she lives...

Although it's never pretty, and Kurt's ashes reportedly get stolen... and she spent all the money, loses custody of the kids, goes nuts and so they make action figures out of his likeness.

go figger

the Gels kept their gas money and dignity...

No one died, at least no one in the bad...

In fact none of them ever was hooked on needles...

Nice guys finish last...but The Gels really are probably much better off in their homes, with their happy kids & less than fully glamorous day jobs...

kudos Gels, you lived, they all lost...

oh, and welcome to the web after all these years

From the 1991 Tension Holding Co vinyl only release "Quality Time": The Gelsmist-RBig

psst:

Here's another cracklin' vinyl sourced track:

The late great David Ruffin doing a track circa '74 produced and written by Norman Whitfield...

the hit version was released under the Undisputed Truth brand name, but here's Whitfield lending it to an ex-Temptation on the rebound who understood some of that sinister sentiment as well...

Dancing in Heaven I never thought I could get my feet this far(Orbital Be-Bop)[ these lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]Dancing in Heaven I never thought I could get my feet this far(Orbital Be-Bop)

Dancing in Heaven I never thought I could get my feet this far(Orbital Be-Bop)Dancing in Heaven I never thought I could get my feet this far(Orbital Be-Bop)

Dancing in Heaven I never thought I could get my feet this far(Orbital Be-Bop)Dancing in Heaven I never thought I could get my feet this far(Orbital Be-Bop)

Costa Rica offered this guy it's bounty, including sun, golf, beaches, casinos, horseback riding and of course... a little girl, purchased more or less easily by paying off her family with a house.

Feds have him on counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Add fleeing the US on the eve of arraignment to the list of his crimes...

When I first heard about it I was shocked and sickened... but this guy, a former professor at UC Berkeley's Hass School of Business always believed his own bullshit, so I am no longer stunned.

The worst part was this guy had so much money, he thought he could do whatver he wanted, and was convinced he had the manifest destiny to take a a prepubescent girl's virginity, transport graphic photos of her genitalia, and continue to have his way ...

She recently just turned 16, but the Feds say this guy has been going at her since she was 12...

Even while on the lam, he was sending emails to friends in the U.S boldly proclaiming his righteousness, said he was the victim of a US government conspiracy and misguided laws...and afterall, he was in love!

Just to prove his party loyalty, right after NY Gov. Elliot Spitzer was caught paying for an adult hooker, he sent me a note saying

" in the words of Michael Savage, who thought the democrats could Shtuup this low"

Meanwhile, he's getting all indignant about Spitzer, and it was already 9 quiet months since his own home was raided by the Feds who seized his illicit personal photo collection. He still has time to slag Spitzer, yet here is a fellow jew in the even dirtier deep doo doo process of actually making arrangements to flee the country... and skip out on his debts, business associates, family and prosecution.

Unrepentant to the end... thats Chutzpah!

For footnotes and frames of reference, consider this:

Here's something this guy emailed me in '06 when he was railing about the decision by the Bush admin to deny habeas corpus to their Gunatanomo detainees...

now let's consider this a concept so abhorrent to the constituition, that even the same Supreme Court who put Bush & crew in office has rejected the Bush b.s ...

So in an email exchange to him, I mentioned that...

"I work at an institution where they teach the rule of law, a law that has often been the only common thread that holds order together...and separates us from animals, and thugs...

The laws we abide by, because hopefully we are striving to be a society that knows the meaning of justice, and values honesty, the concept of basic rights and human decency...

"I think it's odd that you would support the idea that there should be no redress for an individual before a court...and that your ideological pals like Rehnquist & Gonzalez, over the past few decades would seek to limit the concept of writs of habeas corpus...

(p.s did you know Rehnquist had a clause on his vacation home that prohibited the transfer or rental of it to a member of the Hebrew race until public exposure forced him to it taken off the deed in 1988?)"

lenny replied:

"fuck your sillywhining about rights..youhave no idea how free we are,and how costly it is to protect that freedom, having never spent a dime or a minute of your sweat or blood protecting it...whining won´t stop these guyus....jail, death, castration and pigs blood in their coffins will "

I can only wonder how much sweat and blood a total coward like Lenny spent defending my rights ( perhaps he considers the energy spent repeatedly mounting some tweenager in Costa Rica a sacrifice for his country).

And now, I wonder what further rights to sexual freedom await him once his long incarceration starts.

How ironic that such a capitalist chickenhawk flag waver would seek refuge in communist Cuba... a country he supposedly found reprehensible, the hypocrisy is indeed amazing.

Look at the unsolicited correspondance he was sending out via email only days from his capture in Habana on La Isla Bonita...

Ironically when he wrote that from his chosen hide out in Cuba, I am certain his internet I.P address location was being determined, he didn't even change his AOL email address!!

He chose a communist country, who he's said derogatory things to me in conversations about, and whose leaders he's derided, yet was hiding there while thinking they must be more godless than he is.

uh, apparently you were wrongo there mister smarty pants...

Despite those degrees and brains, he eventually lasted a little less than a month on the lam...

Lenny is the now 4th US fugitive Cuba has returned since Raul took over from Fidel recently.

Cuba actually has no extradition treaty with the US, and has harbored other higher profile american fugitives for decades, including some like Black Panther Assata Shakur who's a convicted & unrepentant cop killer.

However the crime this capitalist pig was engaged in actually got the Cuban Gov't's attention... and I suppose the last thing they need is for another fat decadent tourist guy to start feasting on their young girls. Cuban officials have said they are now agressively pursuing these types of sex crimes, which prompted their cooperation.

Lenny gave up his family, his professional life, his respectability ( a terrm I use looseley) and a Million plus dollar estate in the East Bay hills...

His monied comfort cushion and world of wickedness came tumbling down at one of those airport laptop checkpoints in Miami, when the photos of his tween gal pal were thought suspicious by TSA...

While his multi-million dollar mortgage business in the Bay Area was slowly collapsing, he was on his way to one of his 40 or so trips he took over the past few years to his vacation casa in Costa Rica.

The law enforcement people observed his movements a little more closely, and Costa Rican officials reported him cavorting with an underage companion, kissing her in the airport, frequenting a casino, and taking her to a house.

Lenny was basically ensnared in the nosey Homeland Security apparatus that his Republican pals enacted on his behalf to keep us all free from the "anti-American" potential terrorist and "deviant scumbags" that he supposedly hated so much...

He was proud of his association with UC Berkeley, where he had served 10 years as an adjunct Professor, once claiming in an email to me that the school was high ranked and that it was great because:

"No faggot criminals allowed"

he boasted in another email I received last year that"Auerbach is first with all the women. "

Sadly, it appears he has to travel across borders & entrap them rather early in their lives, perhaps before they are truly even women...

He was also fond of sending reports from the moonie owned Washington Times, and Murdoch owned news services etc that proclaim global warming a myth, that Democrats are more corrupt than Republicans, and many foreign reports that affirm Arabs are mostly inbred, have poor test scores and generally inferior to Jews....

Many of his fave clippings were from inflammatory Zionist writer Yaakov Lappin, whome he claimed was a cousin...

He bemoaned anyone who would defend "habeas corpus rights", or whine about the "Least ethical Congressman in history "...

Was it all just prescient self loathing?

A typical fascist's response in a world of an order he knows he is running afoul of...

The international surveillance web that could be finding the next Mohammed Atta found a sick family values spouting 61 one year old Viagra crazed proudly Jewish mortgage broker from Orinda instead...

Certainly he'll be lucky that he at least has the right to a trial, and not the same disturbing fate as Saddam's ( egregiously acted out death by public hanging).

A video of that Lenny excitedly sent as an email around to anyone on his email list...Gleefully telling them to make sure they watched until the very end...

When the former leader of a country whose rise to power we funded heavily was pelted with petty insults as he was hanged in a dingy garage...

I assume this pedophile has a lawyer hoping to keep his client out of the general population.

He probably wasn't so lucky in Cuba...

Lenny's month in Cuban prison was likely far more eye opening than a year in US prison...

Amid the indifference, there's indolence by the guards, and no special custody, all common prisoners are mixed with pedophiles and murderers.

The 61 year old fond of wearing gold chains & traveling first class was likely detained in a small common prisoner cell, with no mattresses.

Cuba mixes violent criminals, murderers and drug dealers, and people with psychological disorders in a co-habitation process that is in itself a sadistically refined extra punishment.

All are forced to use a common toilet--which consists of a hole in the floor. The food, often deliberately rotten and containing little nourishment, is also designed to break down a prisoner physically and psychologically.

While the Cuban gov't claims three meals a day of over 2000 calories, many reports from Human Rights Watch say two servings of food per day is common, with breakfast being a cup of water with some sugar and for lunch, four or five spoonfuls of rice and a small bowl of unidentifiable soup (caldo loco).Prisoners have recalled meals composed of rice or beans that were infested with pests, rotting animal innards, excrement, and putrified cow's and pig's blood.

Several prisoners have told Human Rights Watch that receiving food in this condition was one of the most degrading experiences of their prison terms which are served in some 200 prison and labor camps spread around an island slightly smaller than Pennsylvania. Many prisoners are kept in common yards with little privacy or hot, windowless cells which lack adequate potable water and from which they are infrequently taken outside...

Prison guards apparently permit these abuses in order to ensure the loyalty of the prisoners' councils, who they have improperly imbued with internal prison disciplinary authority. Human Rights Watch learned from a credible source that members of prisoner councils have subjected male detainees to repeated rapes. One former prisoner said that while the prisoners' council's sexual abuse was "constant," he knew of no case when a guard intervened. Another former prisoner said that guards permit the council members to practice sodomy and that there are "many cases of rape."

Lenny should be glad he is back... even if that means serving many years in the good ol US of A.

All because he couldn't resist sexually exploiting a girl who could have easily been his grandaughter's age...

Monday, June 16, 2008

Today's post title comes from a song on an old LP I bought this weekend...

Baby Washington's "Handful of Memories"

Most people I know have never heard of R&B Hall of Fame member Baby Washington, ( aka Justine Washington) which is kind of a shame really. Baby was a great R&B soul singer of the 50's & 60's, but one who never really cracked into the top 40.

She started back in the Doo-Wopping days circa 1956 as a member of The Hearts, a vocal group outta Harlem, but didn't score a solo "hit" until 1959 with "the Time" on the Neptune label, a song she wrote. While 12 of her records hit the R&B charts, none were big enough to build her a permanent position in the pop pantheon.

Apparently Dusty Springfield named her as her fave vocalist, and Dusty made the charts with "Breakfast In Bed" (from the classic Dusty in Memphis album), which although written by southerners Eddie Hinton & Donnie Fritts, was originally considered one of Baby's tunes, released first on Cotillion.

She placed a few in the lower echelons of the hit parade, her biggest being the ballad "That's How Heartaches Are Made" which barely hit #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. By then she was recording for Sue Records, who released a few more attempts, but as musical tastes changed, Baby faded into obscurity. She attempted a comeback in the early 70's, but disco delivered a definitive death knell to the classic soul sounds of the 60's.I'm pleased to report, Baby has been getting a late career renaissance, apparently is still performing on the east coast, and I for one would love a chance to see her sing...

I originally got hipped to her via the WFMU blog awhile back, and when I stumbled across an out of print "Best Of" LP, I went for it...

In fact I went back for it...because I had cold feet the first time I saw it...

When I stumbled out the store clutching the 12x12 cover everyone asked me what it was, then shrugged their shoulders...

With good intentions paving the way to bar hopping hell, a friend and I headed out and intended to catch New Orleans' mighty Rebirth Brass Band this weekend, but little did we know both nights were sold out....

Go figger...

I mean that's cool and all, but I had no idea the kids were so hip to them these days...

We had to stumble up and down into bars on the side streets of da Western Addition while a long line of Gen Y hipsters and what looked like jam bandabouts were boppin' out to da Rebirth inside The Independent.

I first saw them about 17 years ago, when they were shipped out here for New Years Eve 1991...and since then, every few years either catch them here, or always make a point to drop by the Maple Leaf in Nawlins when in town...

Here's some stuff for those of yaz... who might need a refresher course...

In case you don't know, this next track is an old Ray Charles track, but updated with that Nawlins brass sound. Kermit Ruffins is a former member of the ReBirth Brass Band whose gone off on his own, but here they reunite on their joint album "Throwback" from Basin St Records...

I also shoulda gone to see the great Bettye LaVette & Booker T for free lasterday afternoon at Stern Grove, but decided to head to the North Beach Festival instead...

Actually by the time I remembered Bettye & Booker T were playing I was already at The North Beach Festival, and there wasn't no way, no how, I woulda made it in time to catch Ms.LaVette...

Doh!

Here's Miss Bettye LaVette from Muskegon Mi with an obscure oldie she recorded for Detroit's Lupine label in the 60's long before her 2005 Anti/Epitaph records release had her career rejuvenated and her great soulful voice rediscovered...

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

While I Sit here waiting for Fed Ex to deliver a much needed package wth a key component to restoring my laptops operating system I use a different box keyboard whose spacebar issticking. Thiscauses most all the wordsI typetojumbletogether andbecomeillegible.

This in turn creates further frustration and makes me ponder world affairs, voting in Today's California election, the prospects of what awaits us in musicon this new release Tuesday, and ever more Increasing Signs Of My Aging & Domestication.

While I'm no John McCain, I have noticed a pattern of old man-itis creeping in.

Take Sunday For Example :

A Friend Offered To Get Me In Free To An Outdoor R.E.M Concert At The Greek Theater in Berkeley... with free beers included.

I opted out to go grocery shopping & buy potting soil at the local garden center. I just imagined it wouldn't be as intimateas the time I wasin aposse that woke Mike Mills up at his house in Athens and had his wife make homemade bloody marys, Or having drinks with Peter Buck or Scott McCaughey at bars in SF.

Maybe my reluctance was due to earlier readinga snarky review of the previous day's show that said the crowd was 80's retro refugees worshipping Stipe who looks like a cancer patient, (but when he takes his hat off, it looks like it's in remission).

Being an oldman, who bought the Radio Free Europe 7" single becauseof a review in Trouser Press before I'd ever heard it,I would be wise to stay away... I suppose'd I'd take the band's advice and stay home becuase living well really is the best revenge.

Fuck the crowds though...I suppose despite themarketing putsch, I'd rather be listening to tracks I downloaded from the Murmur tour from an old R.E.M set in Toronto, but kids today uh, they like the Akon.

On Saturday: I was invited to a warehouse party at the same location where I had a great, pleasantly debauched timeon the last visit I made. Plus on this paricular occasion, my pal's band was playing their last show, and I had no good reason not to attend. Instead, I went out for a dinner at a quiet Mediterranean-Turkish joint in Alameda and drank vino, afterwards I watched a Chritian Slater movie from Netflix.

A week or so before I was at a big outdoor rock festival thang with backstage access and I hung out with kids instead of Hollywood hoohahs and left at dusk before the last beers were finished in the hospitality tent...

Last Week: I flaked on attending a bowling party with some hot chicas including the band Ladytron who were celebrating their new album Velocifero...

This week's new release tuesday sees the world getting a chance tograb some Daptone 45 collections in digital form. as well as some key reissues of classic jazz releases from the Riverside label.

All these remastered reissues have the original & new liner notes from the now 85 year old producer Orrin Keepnews, the man behind the legendary Riverside & Milestone labels...

COLEMAN HAWKINS: The Hawk Flies High (1957),

Orrin's commentary (from his new liner notes):

"Before [Coleman] Hawkins, the tenor saxophone-which has come to be one of the basic instruments of jazz-simply did not exist, a fact that would be disputed by neither Lester Young nor Ben Webster-his most prominent immediate successors-nor by Sonny Rollins or John Coltrane or anyone you might choose to put near the head of the line thereafter. This was not my only studio experience with Hawkins, although it was the only opportunity to deal with him strictly on his own terms, which is certainly the only appropriate way to approach a great artist."

SONNY ROLLINS: Freedom Suite (1958),

Orrin's commentary (from his original liner notes):

"Because Sonny Rollins is as passionate, talented, multifaceted and variable as this album (and many others over his many years of activity) would lead you to believe, I am glad to be able to say that this remarkable artist remains one of the greatest and most creative of all tenor saxophone players and improvisers, and that he also happens to remain a valued friend."

Orrin's commentary on this album that featured Wes Montgomery (from his original liner notes):

"There are two very good reasons why this album, which at this writing is just a couple of years short of being a half-century old, remains one of my warmest recording memories. Undoubtedly the more important reason is that this really represents the coming of age of Nat Adderley, a man I will always consider among the most adventurous and intelligent players and leaders I have ever worked with. But to step back and evaluate this album in a very personal way, it is half of what must be one of the most complicated and most rewarding weeks of recording activity I have ever experienced."

WES MONTGOMERY: Incredible Jazz Guitar (1960)

Orrin's commentary (from his new liner notes):

"I began constructing the 1960 definitive presentation of [Wes] Montgomery by recognizing the need to keep things as clear-cut and uncomplicated as possible. There were at least three unique aspects to his performing style: he played with his thumb, never using a pick. And his solos almost invariably included two elements routinely referred to as 'impossible'-his use of octaves and of pianistic block chords. Self-taught (his first 'lesson' had involved heavy listening to Charlie Christian records) and never able to read music notation of any kind, he somehow possessed an unfailing command of the blues and of ballad tempo and was an impressive composer."

"Although I had been very much impressed by his work with [John Coltrane], listening to [McCoy Tyner] in New York clubs in the years that followed made me aware of how remarkably he was developing. He was, and still remains, one of the most powerful pianists I have ever heard; many years ago having learned to merge that strength with a very personal form of lyricism-an unusual, unique combination. To me, it is this linking of power and beauty-in both the writing and the playing here-that distinguishes Fly With the Wind and makes it possibly my personal favorite among the 17 albums that I worked on with this extraordinary artist during our eight years together at Milestone."

Here's an mp3 preview selectionofother Keepnews collection downloadsthat are currently available via Amazon

Monday, June 02, 2008

I saw the headlines this morning annoucing the death of the great Bo Diddley...

I shouldn't be posting right now, because I have plenty of other business to attend too, but out of respect to the esteemed Mr. Diddley ( aka Elias McDaniel) and his incredible legacy, I felt at least compelled to offer a brief shout out.

Unfortunately for y'all I'm in the bitter mode of battling a fkdup keyboard with broken spacebar, and Bill Gates' diabolical destructive to data Windows system and I can't access a lot of my music currently.

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